Current Projects

In 2016 Olivia Jageurs launched 15 Second Harp, in which she pledged to video record any notated harp music, composed and submitted by anyone from all over the world. By the end of the year she had recorded over 200 submissions.

The aim of the project is to create a sharing platform for composers and harpists to try out ideas, techniques and pedalling, with near instant feedback. Olivia came to YCAT with the idea of exploring how she could develop this existing project into new instruments and media.

“YCAT Sounding Board sessions have let me explore my ideas at length with professionals who have unique industry insight. I have been able to solidify my goals and the experience so far has been invaluable.” Olivia Jageurs

“If there were only one truth, I could still paint a hundred pictures of it” Pablo Picasso

EnvisionLied’s aim is to explore clarity and expression of the essence of art song, through high-quality musical interpretation and performance, and complimentary visuals that capture the essence of both the performers of this genre and the emotional content of the song. These works of art will form an online video library, providing thought-provoking interpretations and an insight into the artist’s musical process. Whilst this is not an attempt to produce a film or dramatisation of art song, it is an attempt to produce a visual representation of these works which echoes the minimal, subtle yet emotionally provocative genre, in line with the ultimate exponents of these works.

This is a cyclic creative process, producing an original work of art (the music video) entirely based upon an existing work of art (the art song). The music video will then feed back into the existing work, enhancing our experience of the performance.

“Sounding Board is really helping me to refine my vision and make practical steps towards reaching my goals. The sessions have been inspiring and challenging, encouraging me to develop new skills.” Jocelyn Freeman

Kabantu is a five-piece hailing from Manchester who unravel new marriages of music from around the globe. Vocal harmonies from South Africa coalesce with everything from Celtic reels and Brazilian samba to Balkan folk music and beyond. Kabantu throw away the rulebook to bridge countries and cultures, creating an exuberant and joyful sound.

Highlights so far include performing at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, live sessions for BBC Free Thinking Festival, BBC Radio 3 In Tune, World on 3 and an array of prestigious festivals and venues across the UK including The Bridgewater Hall, The Sage Gateshead, Celtic Connections, Musicport, Spitalfields Festival and Cambridge Folk Festival.

Kabantu are the winners of the Royal Over-Seas League Competition 2017. The quintet are also delighted to be Selected Making Music 2016-17, Live Music Now and BBC Introducing Artists.

Giovanni Punto is a project by Alec Frank-Gemmill exploring the life of the horn player Giovanni Punto (1746-1803). This extraordinary musician was an acquaintance of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, giving the premieres of various important pieces in the horn literature.

Principal Horn of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Alec Frank-Gemmill divides his time between concertos, recitals, chamber music and orchestral playing. He was Artist in Residence at the 2013 Lammermuir Festival and made his Wigmore Hall debut the same year. He has since gone on to perform as a soloist at numerous festivals including Spitalfields, Ryedale, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and St. Magnus.

Alec was a member of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme 2014-16, appearing as soloist with the BBC orchestras on numerous occasions, including performances of rarely-heard repertoire by Ethel Smyth, Malcolm Arnold and Charles Koechlin. With his own orchestra, the SCO, he has performed concertos by Mozart (on the natural horn) with Richard Egarr, Ligeti and Strauss with Robin Ticciati, Schumann with John Eliot Gardiner and Macmillan with Andrew Manze.

Inspired by Boulez’s Notations, The Notations Project is a performance project that aims to programme the music of Boulez and his contemporaries alongside new compositions inspired by his work, in a series of concerts across the U.K. and abroad. Boulez’s composition is a 1945 work of twelve short ‘notations’ (each twelve-bars long). The aim is to create an open call for twelve new miniatures (lasting less than a minute each) from young and emerging composers, and then programme these compositions alongside the original, in a series of concerts in 2018.

Praised as a pianist of “huge intensity” (The Telegraph), Alexander Soares is developing a reputation as an artist of formidible technique and virtuosity, with performances of “diamond clarity and authority” (BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’). In 2015, his performance in the BBCSO / BBC Radio 3 ‘Boulez at 90’ celebrations received widespread critical acclaim in the press, described as a “brilliantly unbuttoned account” (The Sunday Times) and “most memorable of all” (The Financial Times). The 2014-15 season began with a BBC Radio 3 broadcast of the rarely heard piano repertoire of John Tavener, and included Alexander’s debuts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the latter performance applauded for its “explosive sound world, pulling out a rich array of colour and texture” (The Herald). He was awarded 1st prize and Gold Medal in the prestigious Royal Overseas League Competition, and was subsequently selected as a 2015 Artist by City Music Foundation. 2016-17 highlights include returns to Wigmore Hall, West Road, Cambridge and St. James’s Piccadilly, and debuts at various festivals across the U.K.

In (The) C is a project by composer and sound designer Frazer Merrick. It is an open call to musicians in the East Anglian region (Essex/Suffolk) to an open air performance of Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ performed paddling/wading in the sea somewhere along the essex coastline.

The vision is to introduce traditional music theory to a group of young people who have no classical music training, via this experimental composition and using quirky performance setting to encourage participation and raising awareness of the group. The decision to make the performance an open call is to lift the pressure from the young musicians on playing the ‘right’ notes and instead allowing them to focus on their performance. The open call also encourages peer led learning between the young musicians and more established musicians during the rehearsal period and also any future collaborations.

Coming Up for Air is a project which explores the creative possibilities that emerge when pieces of music are limited to one breath. The project was initially inspired by the performances of two works for solo flute which both feature extreme breath manipulation and control; Brian Ferneyhough’s ‘Unity Capsule’ and Alvin Lucier’s ‘Self Portrait’ for Flute & Wind Anemometer. During this period, while embarking on my International Artist Diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music, I was faced with my own respiration limitations through a chronic sinus condition and an asthma diagnosis, serious issues for a flautist.

Kathryn Williams is a flautist who performs solo recitals, chamber music, and with orchestras with a particular interest in new and experimental music. Recent performances include a Stockhausen masterclass with Kathinka Pasveer at Theater Basel, solo and chamber music performances with Ensemble Linea Academy at Cité de la musique et la danse Strasbourg, and a concerto with Manchester Camerata. She has performed with various orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, The Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Sinfonia Cymru and plays regularly with new music group The House of Bedlam.

Bairnsangs is a creative project, designed to increase the appeal and accessibility of contemporary classical music to young children and their parents/teachers. The project involves the live performance of classical song cycles for children, enhanced by illustrations and animations; and the subsequent development of multimedia materials intended to widen the reach of the project to children throughout the UK and around the world. The project also involves the development of educational workshops to be offered to children in communities around the UK in conjunction with local primary schools, libraries and childcare centres.

Music director Tamara Lorenzo Gabeiras was inspired to found XOGA in 2017 as a means of animating rarely-performed opera interpreted by a young creative team. Tamara met director Cecilia at British Youth Opera in August 2016, during a production of Britten’s Owen Wingrave. Tamara met Lorena at the GSMD in the search for other Galicians living in London and they have collaborated since. On one of those creative-plotting coffee meetings Lorena mentioned Malachy and brought him on board. Choreographer Fran and dancer Mary Sol met while staging an unperformed Ballets Russes work, Liturgie, with Cecilia’s Spectra Ensemble in December 2016.